Observations in Greensboro, NC

Robin Williams struggles with his demons in the movie – Hook (1991). I watched it again last night. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a great morality play. In his various movies, Williams characters often struggle with dark issues armed with a sense of humor and intellect.

Some noteworthy quotes from Hook:

Captain James Hook: Prepare to die, Peter Pan!
Peter: To die would be a grand adventure!
Captain James Hook: Death is the only adventure you have left!

–
Moira Banning: I hated the deal, but I’m sorry you feel so badly about it. Your children love you, they want to play with you. How long do you think that lasts? Soon Jack may not even want you to come to his games. We have a few special years with our children, when they’re the ones that want us around. After that you’re going to be running after them for a bit of attention. It’s so fast Peter. It’s a few years, and it’s over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it.

–
Captain James Hook: [holding a pistol to his head] No stopping me this time, Smee. This is it. Don’t make a move Smee, not a step. My finger’s on the trigger. Don’t try to stop me, Smee.
Smee: Oh, not again.
Captain James Hook: This is it. Don’t try to stop me this time, Smee. Don’t try to stop me this time, Smee. Don’t you dare try to stop me this time, Smee, try to stop me. Smee, you’d better get up off your ass. Get over here, Smee!
Smee: I’m coming. I’m coming.
Captain James Hook: Stop me! This is not a joke! I’m committing suicide!
[Smee triggers the gun away from Hook’s head, sinking the model ship in the pool]
Captain James Hook: Don’t ever frighten me like that again.
Smee: I’m sorry.
Captain James Hook: What are you, some kind of a sadist?
Smee: I’m sorry, I’m sorry. How do you feel now?
Captain James Hook: [sighs] I want to die.
Smee: Oh, now, now.
Captain James Hook: There’s no adventure here.
Smee: [hold out Hook’s gun] You call this no adventure?
Captain James Hook: Death is the only adventure I have left, Smee.

–
Captain James Hook: [to Peter as he traps him and grinds his hook near his face] You know you’re not really Peter Pan, don’t you? This is only a dream. When you wake up, you’ll just be Peter Banning – a cold, selfish man who drinks too much, is obsessed with success, and runs and hides from his wife and children!

–
Wendy Darling: So, Peter, you’ve become a pirate.

–
Captain James Hook: [watching Peter try – and fail – to rescue his children] Smee, I don’t understand. Why doesn’t he fly? Is he not Peter Pan?
Smee: He’s Peter Pan, all right, Captain. He’s just been away from Neverland so long, his mind’s been junk-tified. He’s forgotten everything.

–
Wendy Darling: Boy, why are you crying?
Peter Banning: I don’t know. A tear for every happy thought.

Phil talked about Howard’s hard work, dedication to the people of NC, honesty, and friendship. He laughed with Howard about having to learn all the school mascots to carry on that tradition.

“It is a personal and professional honor to have our Congressman, Howard Coble, offer such kind words on my behalf. He has become a mentor to me, and I cherish his friendship and his wise counsel” Berger said.

Phil hopes to fill Howard’s big shoes by providing the same level of constituent services from his office as they have received from Howard’s. He also hopes to retain his staff so that they can continue to serve the 6th district.

“The name on the stationary may change, but Howard’s legacy of constituent services will remain as long as I am your congressman” said Berger. “As the primary point of contact with the federal government for many Americans, a congressional office can be a lifeline, providing answers and solutions for veterans, business owners, families, and concerned citizens.”

“This election provides the people of the 6th district with a choice. I would ask all of Howard’s supporters to join our positive, conservative campaign. I am proud that Howard Coble has chosen to support a proven conservative to replace him in Congress. Howard, thank you.”

“Thank you all for coming and may God continue to bless this great nation.”

“You shouldn’t measure success by how many students are coming in and even graduating. We should measure success by how many students are getting jobs. Especially, jobs that they study for.”

Said Governor McCrory, Tuesday night at Methodist University’s Spring Entrepreneurial Leadership Summit to a group that included Fayetteville State University Chancellor Anderson and the President of Methodist University.

I believe that people go to school to learn skills that will enable them to be successful in their careers. They’re also choosing to invest a significant amount of money for that education. The schools need to deliver a solid Return on Investment to the students (and anyone else that’s helping to pay for that education).

Why is there so little mention of Easter in Easter Sunday’s News & Record? It’s mentioned in the body of Beth McKee-Huger’s piece, but not in a single headline. In a couple of other pieces, it’s used as a date reference. Can anyone explain the editorial decision-making behind this?

The Newseum in Washington, DC has a neat feature with front pages of newspapers from all over the world – but view them quickly as they are only available for that day. An interesting study would compare the coverage of Easter in various media outlets including social media.

Hickory Daily Record Prominent story titled “He is Risen” (top story and just below it is an even larger article titled Got Beer?), plus Easter ad in footer. **This is my favorite front page

High Point Enterprise Header and main prominent story about Easter, only other article on front page is about church pianist/organist world record holder, it is the only front page with all faith stories

People blog for a lot of reasons. I reached out to the local blogging community and received lots of great advice. The following is a jumble of those thoughts. I played 52 pickup with their sentences and my own.

Helping to create a new local journalism landscape was my primary focus for the longest time, and the thing with the most lasting value. Much remains left to do on that front.

Have something to say about a topic

That quickly led to a focus on areas that interested me, in which what we now call social media was having an impact: politics, journalism, and pop culture.

Write about what you know, and write about what you care about. Ideally these will be identical, but if they’re not, go with what you care about and use part of that caring to learn more about the subject as you go.

Write about things you know about and care about. Take some time, experiment and find what appeals to you is good advice. Add value, not volume. Get things right the first time.

Eventually the love affair ended and I was ready to quit. Then a subject came up that I was passionate about.

To build a record on a topic.

To pay attention. Writing in a way that builds a body of work on specific topics allows one to understand certain aspects of those topics better over time. The frequency, origin and consequences of events pertaining to those topics becomes clearer when observed over time— when one pays attention — giving a better understanding of their true nature. Over time, one starts to see patterns and connections that reveal more than the occasional observation.

To put it out there

Sometimes, blogging is a way for me to “put it out there,” — for the “record.” To say, “I’m watching.” “I see this.” “This is questionable.” “This is praise-worthy.” That may not influence public opinion en mass, but it contributes to the slow-drip and, often enough, is noticed by those who are involved with the topics of my commentary.

Some things need to be said. Some things need to be repeated. My fave are those things which probably should never be said at all. I enjoy the right and the ability to comment on injustice wherever I find it. As a result, I have many enemies and few friends.

Resource of information

Become a resource of information for other Internet users. A few of those readers would explore the rest of my site and become regular readers. Others read the free lists of not so widely known search engines. Any time I went looking for something and couldn’t find it all in one place or what I found came up short I published a list on one of the pages in the background of my site. Then I wrote a short blog post linking to it not so much to tell people about it but to direct the search engines to more easily find it. In other words, I made myself necessary.

Organize my thoughts

To practice organizing my thoughts; to research and think through topics; to test my assumptions and conclusions. Writing with some seriousness of purpose makes me a better thinker and, therefore, a better communicator elsewhere as well.

Tied into my day job

Along the way, I found blogging to be a natural and useful adjunct to my jobs as a writer and editor.

I started out blogging in an attempt to sell a product. (Not a good reason) That failed but for a short while before the economy crashed I managed to earn my living at it. Unfortunately my reader demographic was largely under $35,000 a year so they fell quickly and so did my blogging for a living. By that point I was in love with doing it and continued.

For Me

Make me think, expand my viewpoint.

I write because I can’t NOT write, and the blog is one convenient outlet among many. If anyone enjoys it, great, but I do it for me — not to market myself, but because doing it makes me feel good.

I think blogging made me a better writer, thinker, and listener. I hope it made me a better person. I’ve told my kids many times that when I look back at my life I almost never think, man, I wish I’d been more of a dick. Blogging reinforced that lesson for me.

Time intensive

I quit because I loved it and I had other stuff I wanted and needed to do.

I started again because once I’d broken the habit of being a multiple-times-a-day, constantly-engaged blogger (and be warned that it is a powerful habit) I felt I still had something to say about my community, and still wanted a place to write.

And try not to allow it to become an obsession.

Better way to communicate than FB, Twitter

And I found that with FB siphoning off the old flow of link-blogging and cat pics, the longer pieces I want to write were a natural fit for a blog.

But then you’ve experienced the failings of Facebook or you wouldn’t be starting a blog.

Building Traffic

Driving online traffic is a multifaceted endeavor. But if you blog just for the sake of traffic, the blog won’t do well.

Don’t chase traffic, chase good ideas.

When you drive significant enough amounts of readers to the other website to get their attention. Some being stat whores like myself will simply look to see what others are saying about them but sometimes they will respond with links in-kind. Sadly, blogging etiquette isn’t as closely followed as it once was.

You’ll want to be selective in who you link to in blog posts. That said, outbound links can drive inbound traffic when your link sends traffic to other blogs.

Participate in discussions on other blogs.

Be transparent

Be transparent in your blog postings, by which I mean be clear on what each post is about, and write only about that, explaining, among other things, why you’re writing about it (i.e., why you care about it and think other people might, too).

Continuing on the transparency theme, if you’re writing about something that you care about and that you have a financial or personal interest in, say so — that honesty builds trust. But you’re not obliged to go into detail. If you want to blog about something in which you have a financial interest you don’t believe you can safely disclose at the time you want to blog about it, then find something else to blog about it.

Engage and treat others nicely but be careful

If you get commenters, engage with them, particularly the ones who ask questions. You can ignore trolls unless they threaten to drive off other, legitimate commenters, in which case just ban them.

Treat people online the way you would treat them in the physical world.

Your blog, your rules. And in close to 25 years of participating in online communities, I’ve never been in one that didn’t eventually require a moderator.

Also,be careful. You have something to lose, and there are folks out there who don’t, and relish the idea of taking a scalp — any scalp. Hope your skin is thick.

Why are you blogging?

Why are you blogging? Answer that and you’ll go a long way towards knowing what you should be doing. No one size fits all.

Complicated answer – part to learn a new technology/skill, a more comprehensive outlet than FB, creative writing outlet, alternative to friending people on FB, marketing my companies, learning what others think about issues – broadening my viewpoint, thinking aloud on certain issues and making the system more transparent, and blowing off steam.

“The swine industry is North Carolina’s second most important agricultural industry, worth close to $2 billion annually. The Swine Research Unit includes a 250-sow indoor commercial hog-rearing environment, as well as a hoop barn, and a pastured hog operation for small-scale or limited-resource farmers making the transition to hog farming from tobacco or other crops.” – from University Farm website.

There are lots of discussions of sustainable uses of spent grain a byproduct of brewing – but the primary use is animal feed on farms. The grain starts out as dry malt then is used as the primary ingredient in the brewing process. NC has a rapidly growing brewing industry.

Pig Pounder Brewery – Brew House

NC A&T spends $50,000-$60,000 per year on feed in their Swine Program. In some rough calculations in a meeting with the University, we determined that this could save the farm up to $15,000-20,000 per year. Pig Pounder would provide the spent grain free of charge to the University.

That grain has an interesting story including a UNC connection as well. We purchase our malt from Thomas Fawcett & Sons in the UK. They’ve been malting grain since the late 1700s.

Thomas Fawcett & Sons

Floor Malting at Thomas Fawcett & Sons

On a trip to the UK to do research for the Pig Pounder Brewery and our Marshall Free House gastropub – we had the opportunity to meet the owner James Fawcett. We were surprised to learn that James is a UNC alum having graduated in 1988.

So the farm raised pigs at the UNC System NC A&T University Farm may eat feed that originates as grain in the UK malted by Fawcett (UNC class of ’88), then used in making beer at a brewery owned by Kotis (UNC ’91), brewed by Director of Operations Sam Rose (UNC-Asheville ’07) and marketed by Jenna Lumtscher (ECU ’07).

So UNC pigs may get fat and alums might get slaughtered! (UK slang for drunk)